Dozens of schools will be converted to charter schools over the next couple of years, the Government has announced.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour today revealed the upcoming Budget would include $153 million in funding over four years for up to 50 charter schools which he said will uplift declining educational performance.
The funding will go towards establishing and operating up to 15 new charter schools and converting 35 state schools to charter schools in 2025 and 2026 depending on demand and suitability.
State schools can express their interest in converting to charter schools. The application process will open after the legislation is introduced to Parliament in the coming months.
However, Seymour said state schools that are not performing could be turned into charter schools.
The first charter contracts will be negotiated and signed before the end of the year so the first schools can open for term one 2025.
New Zealand first introduced charter schools in 2008 under the John Key government, as part of the National Government's confidence and supply agreement with ACT. The Labour-led Government, with the support of NZ First and the Greens, abolished charter schools in 2018.
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system. In the UK, 40 percent of primary schools and 80 percent of secondary schools are charter schools, Seymour said.
He said the charter schools can, with some restrictions, set their own curriculum, hours and days of operation, and governance structure. They also have greater flexibility in how they spend their funding as long as they reach the agreed performance outcomes.
"Charter schools provide educators with greater autonomy, create diversity in New Zealand’s education system, free educators from state and union interference, and raise overall educational achievement, especially for students who are underachieving or disengaged from the current system," Seymour said.
"They provide more options for students, reinforcing the sector’s own admission that “one size” doesn't fit all."
Seymour said there has been overwhelming interest from educators who are exploring the charter model. He said potential applicants include TIPENE St Stephen's Māori Boy's Boarding School, and AGE School.
Sponsors will have a fixed-term contract of 10 years to operate a charter school, with two rights of renewal for 10 years each. All fixed-term periods are conditional on the school continuing to meet the terms of its contract.
Seymour said a new departmental agency, independent of the Ministry of Education, would be created to implement, operate and monitor the performance of charter schools.
The charter schools would largely be funded on a per student basis, and funding would be broadly equivalent to that for State schools with similar roles and characteristics.
"The unions will criticise charter schools because they will lose their membership fees and their grip on the sector, I say to them it's time they put the students at the heart of education," Seymour said.
"I hope and intend to see many new charter schools opening, and State and State-integrated schools converting to become charter schools. Every child deserves the opportunity to succeed, to achieve to the best of their ability, and to gain qualifications that will support them into further study and employment."
Seymour hopes even more charter schools will be funded in the next Parliamentary term.
However, there have been serious concerns about a lack of accountability at charter schools.
The Ministry of Education said there were difficulties designing fair ways of monitoring charter schools. Ministry reports obtained by RNZ indicated the schools' reporting of their students' academic results was not reliable.
Seymour argued charter schools were subject to "high levels of monitoring and accountability" and could be shut down if they did not achieve outcomes. The new departmental agency established would look at mechanisms to hold charter schools to account.
However, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said charter schools were driven by ideology rather than evidence.
"There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories," Tinetti said.
"Charter schools are part of the Coalition Government's drive to dismantle our public school system and promote a privatised, competitive system that puts profits before kids. Under the last National-Act Government charter schools received preferential funding, they didn’t have to teach the NZ Curriculum, and didn’t have to employ registered teachers."
Tinetti said converting schools takes away resources from the state system and could have been spent on continuing the healthy school lunches programme in its current form.
